Thank you for that tremendous welcome. I promise
you this: I intend to make sure you have every reason to be just as enthusiastic
four years from now as you are tonight.

I've already told many of you this, but I want
to tell you again...thank you. Thank you for your faith in me, for your
support, for your advice and counsel...and for the wonderful honor of serving
as your new mayor.

And thank you for being here to share it with
me this evening.

Tonight is a very special night for me. But
it's much more than an inauguration. It's a celebration--a celebration of what
our city is and what it can be.

Look around you at the faces of your fellow
San Diegans. Look at the different cultures and ethnic heritages we represent.
Look at the range of occupations and experiences, the different neighborhoods
we come from, the differing opinions and interests we hold.

And then remember--for all these differences--we
are joined here tonight by a common bond that's more powerful than any of them,
by our shared love and commitment to this remarkable community of San Diego.

Next month, in my "State of the City" address,
I will set forth a plan to meet the many critical challenges our city faces. But
tonight, I want to do something different, to talk with you about my vision of
the kind of city San Diego can and must become--the first great city of the
21st century.

In doing that, I don't want to minimize the
very difficult problems we confront today. We must solve them--and we will. But
as we stand here, on the threshold of the new millennium, we have an even greater
responsibility than just making it through the day. We must light the way to the
next century.

That isn't as far off as it might seem. Our
2- and 3-year-olds will still be in grade school by the year 2000, and most of
you with teenagers will still be paying college tuitions.

No one would dream of sending a child to school
or making plans for college without doing a lot of groundwork ahead of time. And
we cannot build the San Diego of the future unless we start laying the foundation
for it--right now.

Sometimes, we don't appreciate how radically
the world is changing all around us, but it is. The smokestack economy is gone
for good. Defense budgets are destined to keep shrinking. National borders are
fast becoming insignificant in commerce and trade. And our schools face new challenges
that we hardly could have imagined a decade or two ago.

With all of these changes, and all the crushing
new difficulties the newspapers seem to detail every day, how can I be so optimistic
about the future of San Diego?

I'm optimistic because I know the people
of San Diego--and because I'm convinced that we possess all the ingredients we
need to take control of our destiny--to become a showcase city for the nation
and the world...and, most of all, for us.

Unlike the great cities of the last century,
built at a time when horse-drawn carts and steamships defined both commerce and
communication, we aren't burdened by a huge, out-of-date public infrastructure.
San Diego grew up with the automobile, with the airplane, with satellite-based
communications.

We know what it means to be a global community
because we are one ourselves. And our local businesses don't need to spend years
figuring out the language of the information economy, because they're already
helping to create it, every day.

But perhaps most importantly, because I know
we have the will to work together to get these things done.

The esteemed Governor of Baja California is
here tonight; and the new mayor of our sister city Tijuana, who was sworn into
office just a few days ago himself, joins us tonight as well. The County Board
of Supervisors and ten mayors of the cities of this county are here on the stage
with us.

Their presence is more than symbolic. It is
a clear, ringing commitment to change--to joining together, to sharing ideas and
resources, and to better serving those who expect and deserve the best.

But to live up to this potential, to make San
Diego the first great city of the 21st century, we must make--and keep--four tough
promises to ourselves.

First, we must strive to make San Diego
the most business-friendly city in America. It's time to bury the nonsense
that being against business is somehow good for people. Every business we add
to our city is a new source of work and hope for San Diegans; every business that
leaves--or doesn't even start up--is another closing door.

This cannot and will not continue. The investment
we made decades ago to attract world-class higher-education and research institutions
has brought our city intellectual resources second to none.

Isn't it time we took advantage of them?

Our location on the Pacific coast near Mexico's
border makes us the natural hub of the new North American Common Market...and
an ideal world trade center.

Isn't it time we put those advantages to work?

Our small business owners create more jobs
than all the government programs combined.

Isn't it time we stopped treating them like
unwanted intruders?

The skeptics tell me San Diego will never be
a town of corporate headquarters. I just don't believe it.

General Motors and IBM started small and grew
up in somebody else's hometown. Let's help our own small companies to do the same.
They'll stay right here--and grow--if they can prosper and feel welcome.

The second tough promise we have to make to
ourselves is that, as we become a business-friendly city again, we also must
become the most environmentally sound city we can. If that seems to contradict
the first promise, it's only a sad reflection of how far we've strayed from basic
common sense.

For too long, we've viewed business development
and environmental protection as mortal enemies. In the 21st century, they have
to become full-time allies--or neither will survive.

Our goal must be, as in the words of the Sierra
Club, "not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress." The
secret to protecting our environment is simple: we must make environmentally safe
economic activities more cost-effective than environmentally harmful ones.
And we must begin to do it today.

Just as we restore and protect our physical
environment, we also must revitalize our living environments: those elements that
define and enhance the spirit of a city, that inspire songwriters to write songs
and poets to dream great dreams. And so we must make a third tough promise to
ourselves: that San Diego become the first big city in America to restore and
preserve its human scale.

Many decades ago, America's first great cities
were made up of vibrant, self-reliant, closely knit neighborhoods. But as these
cities grew and freeways cut through them and the buildings became larger and
taller, they lost their neighborhood quality. Neighborhood gathering places disappeared
and rules were dictated more and more by a city hall that grew increasingly distant.

As people lost their sense of community, they
also lost their sense of identity and hope--as the recent riots in Los Angeles
made all too clear.

This must not--and will not--be the future
of San Diego. We need to begin building a city of urban villages--a city where
people identify with their block and their neighbors as much as they do with the
city center.

Because an individual can make a huge difference
on his block, in his school, and in his neighborhood.

I promise you this: I will meet my commitment
to you--to lead, to build the coalitions that will make our city government work,
to add neighborhood police, and to help restore neighborhood pride.

But I ask, too, for your commitment today to
do your part--to clean up your neighborhoods, to volunteer in your schools, to
spend time with the children, the elderly, the sick, the homeless, and those afflicted
with AIDS--the people who need your help the most.

There's simply no way around it: to make it
to the 21st century, we must all make it there together.

The fourth tough promise we must ask of ourselves
is the closest to my heart. If San Diego is to become the first great city of
the 21st century, we also must become a city where every child has a chance
to succeed.

As a parent, I know how fragile the lives of
young children can be--and how much they can lose forever at an early age. I also
know that thousands of children in this city may never have a chance at the prosperity
and happiness the rest of us enjoy.

We must change this--and we must change it
beginning today.

The mayor's office can work with the Board
of Education to make sure every child stays in school and receives a good education
with the skills he needs--and we will.

We can work to encourage private businesses
to provide day-care for working parents--and we will.

We can expand our park and recreation activities,
our after-school programs, and other alternatives to gangs and drug-dealing--and
we will.

But most importantly, we can take back our
streets and neighborhoods so that our children can once again grow up in safety--and
we will.

During the long course of this campaign, three
children whose parents are close to me were the victims of violence. Three children,
from two wonderful, loving families, were killed. All by guns. They will never
be back.

This horror must end.

We must and we will do all that we can to afford
every San Diegan the opportunity to finish school, to work, to raise a family,
to prosper and be happy. But we will also tell those who betray this trust: you
will no longer succeed and profit when you try to do harm.

My friends, this is my pledge to you tonight.
We will make San Diego the first great city of the 21st century. A city
that is good for business. A city that is environmentally sound. A city of self-reliance.
And a city where all children--and all people--can succeed.

We have before us an enormous task, I know.
But nothing this good ever comes without great effort.

I'm ready to give it everything I've got. I
hope you are, too.

Thank you again for the trust and the honor
of being your new mayor.

Source: This speech was mailed to Gifts of Speech from Mayor Golding's office.